Data Communication Networks

Lecture # 01 Introduction

Course Instructor: Engr. Ghulam Shabbir Assistant Professor, TED UET Taxila

Grading Policy

As per policy of CASE

Quizzes may be announced or unannounced. Exams are closed-book and extremely time limited. Exams consist of design questions, numerical, maybe true-false and short answer questions.

Reading

Text book:

Data Communications and Networking, 4/e

B.A. Forouzan, McGraw-Hill, 2003, ISBN 0-07-292354-7.

Reference books:

Computer Networking, a top-down approach featuring the Internet (3rd edition),

J.K.Kurose, K.W.Ross,Addison-Wesley, 2005, ISBN 0-321-26976-4.

Computer Networks, A Systems Approach L. Peterson & Davie Data and Computer Communication by William Stallings (7th Edition) Prentice Hall.

Data Communications

The term telecommunication means communication at a distance. The word data refers to information presented in whatever form is agreed upon by the parties creating and using the data. Data communications are the exchange of data between two devices via some form of transmission medium such as a wire cable.

Fundamental Characteristics

The effectiveness of a data communication system depend on four fundamental characteristics:

Delivery Accuracy Timelines Jitter

Five Components of Data Communication

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Message Sender Receiver Medium Protocol

Direction of data flow

Simplex

Half Duplex

Full Duplex

Network design

Before looking inside a computer network, first agree on what a computer network is

Computer network ?

Set of serial lines to attach terminals to mainframe ? Telephone network carrying voice traffic ? Cable network to disseminate video signals ?

Specialized to handle:
Keystrokes Voice Video

What distinguishes a Computer network ?

Generality Built from general purpose programmable hardware Supports wide range of applications Not optimized for special purpose application like making phone calls or delivering television signals

Information, Computers, Networks

Information: anything that is represented in bits

Form (can be represented as bits) vs Substance (cannot be represented as bits)

Properties:

Infinitely replicable Computers can manipulate information Networks create access to information

Networks

Potential of networking:

move bits everywhere, cheaply, and with desired

performance characteristics Network provides connectivity

What is Connectivity ?

Direct or indirect access to every other node in the network Connectivity is the magic needed to communicate if you do not have a direct pt-pt physical link.

Tradeoff: Performance characteristics worse than true physical link!

Building Blocks

Nodes: PC, special-purpose hardware

hosts switches

Links: coax cable, optical fiber

point-to-point

multiple access

Why not connect each node with every other node ?

Number of computers that can be connected becomes very limited Number of wires coming out of each node becomes unmanageable Amount of physical hardware/devices required becomes very expensive Solution: indirect connectivity using intermediate data forwarding nodes

A Network
A network can be defined recursively as
two or more nodes connected by a physical link Or two or more networks connected by one or more nodes

Switched Networks

A network can be defined recursively as...

two or more nodes connected by a link white nodes (switches) implement the network colored nodes (hosts) use the network

Switched Networks

A network can be defined recursively as...

two or more networks connected by one or more nodes: internetworks white nodes (router or gateway) interconnects the networks a cloud denotes any type of independent network

Switching Strategies

Circuit switching: carry bit streams

a.

Packet switching: storeand-forward messages

a. operates on discrete blocks of data b. utilizes resources according to traffic demand c. send/receive messages at variable rate d. example: Internet

b.

c.

d.

establishes a dedicated circuit links reserved for use by communication channel send/receive bit stream at constant rate example: original telephone network

What next ?

Hosts are directly or indirectly connected to each other

Can we now provide host-host connectivity ?

Nodes must be able to say which host it wants to communicate with

Addressing and Routing

Address: byte-string that identifies a node

usually unique
process of determining how to forward messages to the destination node based on its address unicast: node-specific broadcast: all nodes on the network multicast: some subset of nodes on the network

Routing: forwarding decisions

Types of addresses

Wrap-up

A network can be constructed from nesting of networks An address is required for each node that is reachable on the network Address is used to route messages toward appropriate destination

What next ?

Hosts know how to reach other hosts on the network How should a node use the network for its communication ? All pairs of hosts should have the ability to exchange messages: cost-effective resource sharing for efficiency

Multiplexing

Physical links and nodes are shared among users

(synchronous) Time-Division Multiplexing (TDM) Frequency-Division Multiplexing (FDM) L1 R1 L2 L3 Switch 1 R2 R3

Multiple flows on a single link

Switch 2

Do you see any problem with TDM / FDM ?

What Goes Wrong in the Network?

Reliability at stake

Bit-level errors (electrical interference) Packet-level errors (congestion)

distinction between lost and late packet

distinction between broken and flaky link distinction between failed and slow node

Link and node failures

What Goes Undesirable in the Network?

Required performance at stake

Messages are delayed Messages are delivered out-of-order Third parties eavesdrop

The challenge is to fill the gap between application expectations and hardware capabilities

Networks: key issues

Network criteria Performance

Throughput Delay Data transmitted are identical to data received. Measured by the frequency of failure The time it takes a link to recover from a failure Protecting data from unauthorized access

Reliability

Security

Terminology
The throughput or bandwidth of a channel is the number of bits it can transfer per second
The latency or delay of a channel is the time that elapses between sending information and the earliest possible reception of it

Network topologies

Topology defines the way hosts are connected to the network

Network topology issues

a goal of any topology
1. high throughput (bandwidth) 2. low latency

Bandwidth and Latency

Bandwidth
1. telecommunications: range of radio frequencies: a range of radio frequencies used in radio or telecommunications transmission and reception 2. computing: communications capacity: the capacity of a communications channel, for example, a connection to the Internet, often measured in bits per second 3. a data transmission rate; the maximum amount of information (bits/second) that can be transmitted along a channel

Latency
A synonym for delay, is an expression of how much time it takes for transmission from one designated point to another

Categories of Topology

Mostly used network topologies

bus mesh

star

ring

A hybrid topology: a star backbone with three bus networks

Hierarchical organization of the Internet

LAN, WAN & MAN

Network in small geographical Area (Room, Building or a Campus) is called LAN (Local Area Network)

Network in a City is call MAN (Metropolitan Area Network)

Network spread geographically (Country or across Globe) is called WAN (Wide Area Network)

Layering & Protocol Stacks

Whats a protocol?
human protocols: whats the time? I have a question introductions specific msgs sent specific actions taken when msgs received, or other events network protocols: machines rather than humans all communication activity in Internet governed by protocols

Protocol

protocols define format, order of msgs sent and received among network entities, and actions taken on msg transmission, receipt
a human protocol and a computer network protocol:
Hi
Hi
Got the time?

time

TCP connection req. TCP connection reply.

Get http://gaia.cs.umass.edu/index.htm

2:00

<file>

Standard

Essential in creating and maintaining an open and competitive market for equipment manufacturers Guaranteeing national & international interoperability of data & telecommunication technology & process.

Layered Tasks
An example from the everyday life

Hierarchy?
Services

Why layered communication?

To reduce complexity of communication task by splitting it into several layered small tasks Functionality of the layers can be changed as long as the service provided to the layer above stays unchanged

makes easier maintenance & updating

Each layer has its own task Each layer has its own protocol

Reference Models

OSI reference model TCP/IP

OSI Reference model

Open System Interconnection 7 layers Crate a layer when different abstraction is needed Each layer performs a well define function Functions of the layers chosen taking internationally standardized protocols Number of layers large enough to avoid complexity

1.

2.
3.

4.

Seven layers of the OSI model

Exchange using OSI Model

Issues, to be resolved by the layers

Larger bandwidth at lower cost Error correction Flow control Addressing Multiplexing Naming Congestion control Mobility Routing Fragmentation Security ....

Applications

E-mail Searchable Data (Web Sites) E-Commerce News Groups Internet Telephony (VoIP) Video Conferencing Chat Groups Instant Messengers Internet Radio

Research areas in Networking

Routing Security Ad-hoc networks Wireless networks Protocols Quality of Service

Readings

Chapter 1: 1.1, 1.2

Computer Networks, A Systems Approach

L. Peterson & Davie

Chapter 1 (B. A Forouzan)

Section 1.1, 1.2, 1.3,1.4 Section 2.1

Chapter 2 (B.A Forouzan)